Chris Cohan

Christopher J. Cohan is the former owner of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. He assumed control of the team in 1995 and helped renovate the Warriors' arena (now known as the Oracle Arena). Under Cohan's ownership, however, the team experienced only two winning seasons and one trip to the playoffs.[1] Cohan had founded Sonic Communications in 1977, which became one of the largest independently owned cable outlets in the country before he sold it in May 1998.[2]

In May 2007, Cohan was reportedly fighting a $160 million tax-evasion charge in federal court in the aftermath of his 1998 sale of Sonic Communications for more than $200 million.[4]

In May 2009, an unnamed editorial writer in Sports Illustrated listed the top ten best and worst owners of basketball teams in his opinion, ranking Cohan as 4th worst. He criticized Cohan for sticking with coach Don Nelson as part of the Warriors' generally poor performance apart from their 2007 playoff first-round upset of the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks. He pointed out that Golden State was repeatedly rebuilding without much success.[5]

In the wake of such criticism and controversy, he finally sold the Warriors to Peter Guber and Joe Lacob for $450 million in July 2010.[6]